Smart meter installed as Economy 10 - how will this affect my cylinder water supply?

Hi ​@Caroline51, and a warm welcome to the OVO Forum!

Sorry to hear of this issue - it could well be an issue with meter timings, but could also be an issue with the appliances. 

I’d recommend getting in touch with our Support Team - they’ll be able to see if your meter is switching at the correct times. If nothing seems wrong with the meter then you may need to contact and electrician. I’d also like to link you this previous Forum topic that you might find helpful:

If you could keep us updated on your progress we’d appreciate it. Hopefully Support give you some answers.

That’s not unlikely, but if you’d like us to make suggestions about what might be going wrong and how to remedy it, you’ll have to give us a few more details of your installation. This information would help:

• Your location. The first part of your postcode is enough to pin down the tariff and switching timings you should be seeing.
• What sort of electrical space heating equipment you have - number, type and size of heaters.
• Photos:
  *  A close-up of the meter clear enough for us to be able to read the display and other markings.
  Touch a button to light up the display if it’s dark, and make a note of the time when you take the picture.
  *  A clear view of the meter backboard showing all the equipment on it and the cables connecting it all.
  *  The consumer unit(s) (‘fuse boxes’) with their lids propped open so it’s possible to see and read what each breaker is for.
  *  Any control (e.g. timer) switch for the water heater.

It’s sadly not unusual with new split-rate (e.g. Economy 10) installations for the sort of discrepancy you may be seeing to arise between the times when the tariff changes in the meter and offpeak power is switched on, if that’s the sort of meter you have. There’s often a simple remedy that Support should be able to apply. It’s also possible that you may need to get an electrician in to do a bit of rewiring.

Hi!

Thanks for the help and suggestions. I am embarrassed to say the solution was a very straightforward one. A visiting friend had switched off the individual fuse on leaving thinking she was being helpful. I was heating water on the booster which is a different fuse. I learned something at any rate.

Sorry to waste your time.

Hey, no worries! Please don’t feel bad - you absolutely did not waste our time at all. We love puzzle solving and for us, it’s the positive result that counts regardless of how you found it.

If ya need us again, ya know where we are!

That deserves an (LOL)! I’ve written earlier that when something stops working as expected, the first thing to check is the fuse in the fuse box (nowadays more probably a circuit breaker in a consumer unit).  I should remember to pass on my own advice …

Of course, if a circuit breaker has tripped without human intervention, there might be something wrong that should be investigated. 

Thanks for owning up - you may have helped others with a similar problem falling over this thread in the future 🙂

Thank you for being understanding and not laughing AT me! I agree it’s laughable and I wondered if my post should be deleted then I thought there could be other dafties like me out there!

Hey ​@Caroline51 

As our volunteers have said, we’re just glad you got to the bottom of it and that you let us know, chances are it may help someone else in future too. 

Feel free to pop back any time if you’ve got any other issues of questions.😊

Pleased got sorted! Yes quite happy with how things were, but of late just thinking of getting a local electrician to recheck the internal wiring from the meter to the cylinder, as aside from the initial 4.30/5.30am heat, once used I'm not sure the PM sessions of off peak are effectively re-heating any used hot water if that makes sense. Ran out a couple of times after a sink fill and bath.

Hi ​@Albot81,

Thanks for letting us know, I’m really happy to hear this is pretty much all sorted for you. If you didn’t know of an electrician already this page might help you find one 😁. Let us know how you get on!